Pollitt Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Hi all, long time no see. I'm a great aficionado of the V force, so when I was looking restart my modelling after a bad 2019, which as a result was mostly model free, I knew I wanted to do a V bomber. Combine that with Jan 2020 being the 65th anniversary of the Valiants entering service there was no doubt about which model was coming out of the stash. The natural place to start is the cockpit. This is simple and having seen inside the cockpit at RAF Museum Cosford, I know that it's not fully accurate, but considering once the model will be built you're unlikely to be able to see in there much I think it's adequate for the job. Built, painted to a basic standard and decals put on. Next I decided to tackle what I knew would be a difficult area - the intakes. First of all I've got no idea why Airfix decided to put injection pins inside the intake and not on the back but they did, so first job is filling those holes, then once the 2 halves are together you can see that the seams need attention there as well. So a fair bit of work later I finally get them looking pretty reasonable once primed to the point where I'm happy to move on with the build. We start with this... Do some of this... And end with this... As I said, not perfect (especially when viewed close up like that) but I intend to do a bit of further touch up as I blend it to the wing once installed. So now back to the fuselage. I've decided to do the aircraft as the box art version, XD823, which was involved in the same nuclear testing missions in 1957/58 that the sole surviving Valiant, XD818, was involved in. To do this requires a little modification to the tail. I'm not sure why it's not just an option you can choose between glue the right bit on at the end, but to have the correct tail cone for this version you need to cut away a piece of the tail so you can replace it with the correct version later. This has to be done to both sides. I now masked up the 2 porthole windows in the crew compartment so that I could install them in to the fuselage sections with the cockpit. I also added counterweight to each half of the fuselage sections as seen in this picture. I've decided to do the aircraft on the ground and with the bomb bay doors closed so I installed the internal structure pieces before joining the 2 halves together to complete the fuselage. The tail cone was also added and blended in using the help of miliput to fill the small gaps. Next up wings and tail plane 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew.S Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Good luck with this kit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AltcarBoB Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 I have this kit, I bought it a few weeks ago when I was visiting relatives and only realised how big it would be when finished when I got it home and opened the box. Blimey it has an 484mm/19 inch wingspan I have no idea where I would keep it. I will follow this build as I dont think I will ever start mine unless I suddenly win the lottery and buy a bigger home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pollitt Posted January 5, 2020 Author Share Posted January 5, 2020 11 hours ago, Andrew.S said: Good luck with this kit! Thank you! 9 hours ago, AltcarBoB said: I have this kit, I bought it a few weeks ago when I was visiting relatives and only realised how big it would be when finished when I got it home and opened the box. Blimey it has an 484mm/19 inch wingspan I have no idea where I would keep it. I will follow this build as I dont think I will ever start mine unless I suddenly win the lottery and buy a bigger home. Yes I have to admit, it's turning out bigger than I had expected it to! But it's going to make a great model. I should have space on the shelf, otherwise it might stay in a storage box to put on tables at club displays. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timmas Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 Lovely. I have an interest in the V Force and have this in my stash too. too. I’ll follow your with interest. It’s looking great so far! 😀 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Riot Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 10 hours ago, AltcarBoB said: I have this kit, I bought it a few weeks ago when I was visiting relatives and only realised how big it would be when finished when I got it home and opened the box. Blimey it has an 484mm/19 inch wingspan I have no idea where I would keep it. I will follow this build as I dont think I will ever start mine unless I suddenly win the lottery and buy a bigger home. You could probably afford it if you sold your Valiant on ebay, have you seen the prices they're going for!? 😂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AltcarBoB Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 1 hour ago, Lord Riot said: You could probably afford it if you sold your Valiant on ebay, have you seen the prices they're going for!? 😂 I have just looked and wow I think I might be able to make a profit selling something on eBay for the very first time 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pollitt Posted January 5, 2020 Author Share Posted January 5, 2020 So wings and tail plane. First things first I had a decision to make. Wing tanks or no wing tanks? I know when the Valiants made their live drops they didn't use the tanks. Presumably this was to keep as much aircraft performance as possible to keep the aircraft as safe as possible from any unexpected occurrences. However the tanks were removable, the box art shows the tanks on, they probably did fly out to the Pacific using them, the grandstand aircraft supporting the test may have still used them and I have some reference pictures showing them with the tanks on such as this one... I've decided that because I'm not showing it carrying a nuclear device due to it being in ground configuration with bomb bay doors closed there is nothing to say the configuration is for a live drop. I'm also used to seeing XD818 at Cosford fitted with the fuel tanks. So I'm putting the tanks on. Now that's cleared up, I start off by opening up the tank mounting holes in the lower half of the wing. I then install the landing gear bay and the engine intakes I made earlier. And once both halves are done it's time to add them to the top wing section... It's now that the size is really starting to sink in. That's an 18" by 12" cutting mat and the wing span is clearly larger. So next up is blending the leading edge seam better and the engine intakes in to the wing. Took my time, used some perfect plastic putty and sanding sticks and ended up with a result like this... I then made up the external wing tanks, which needed some work to clean up and make them smooth, and the tail plane. now all the parts are ready it's time to add them all together on the fuselage... So that's it for now. Next bit is adding control surfaces, jet pipes, cockpit bubble and other additions to it before getting ready to paint. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pollitt Posted January 11, 2020 Author Share Posted January 11, 2020 So managed to get the final parts added. Starting with the jet pipes. The fit of these when attached to the model was not good, and a lot of sanding was required to get them to a reasonable fit. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of this part. So next up was the control surfaces. The control surfaces are able to be set in to any position. I wanted to give the model a little bit of customisation and use these features to tell a bit of a story. I decided to leave the ailerons in a neutral position but set the elevators at a slight angle as if the control column had been pushed forwards a little at the end of the flight so the pilots could get out easier. I used masking tape to set them in to position while gluing. Next up just finishing the front of the aircraft by attaching the nose probe and priming the surfaces around the cockpit that will be covered by the canopy bubble once installed so I won't get to paint it later. It's then time to tackle and fill the joins and gaps between the larger pieces. Where the wing and tail plane join has particularly big gaps. Putty time! And once cleaned up... you can also get an idea for how well I managed to get the jet pipes fitted in this pic. And here we are right at the end with the canopy bubble installed and the model ready to start being painted. I'm going to do a primer layer over the various joins and seams first to check if any areas need touching up before pushing on with the full paint job but that will be in the next update. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 A nice concise explanation of your build, looking very good. Regards Robert 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pollitt Posted January 11, 2020 Author Share Posted January 11, 2020 5 hours ago, Robert said: A nice concise explanation of your build, looking very good. Regards Robert Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Poultney Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Hey snap! Just got a second one today to start as soon as my Victor is done 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme H Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 I have this in the stash which I got amazingly cheap, so def watching your build Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reini Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 @Pollitt You're doing a good job - nice and clean work so far Must be impressive sight once finished. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pollitt Posted January 13, 2020 Author Share Posted January 13, 2020 Thanks all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pollitt Posted February 8, 2020 Author Share Posted February 8, 2020 So I've been a little poor in getting this update done but it's here at last. So first things first I primed the aircraft. I'm used to priming with black primer and so stuck with what I know. The primer layer revealed a few spots that needed a little extra filling/sanding which was dutifully done before repriming those areas. It does look a good plane in black... If only I could do the B2 prototype. Anyway I then sprayed the landing gear bays an aluminium colour before filling them with foam and repriming over the over spray The technique I'm used to doing is filling the panels in with white in a kind of reverse preshading technique. Once this is done then this is what I'm left with. Now at this point I decided to experiment a little. I was wary of just having a completely uniform white aircraft. I wanted to add depth and tones to the white while maintaining the anti flash white look. To do this I tried painting a tan colour on using an airbrush template to crate a texture that would hopefully show through slighting on the white layers. I think the idea was sound but I did it too soon or with too light a colour. In this next image I hope you can just see hints of the tan colour coming through just a little in spots like the engines (it was better/clearer in person), but the darker shading is still too strong, and by the time I put more layers on to get my desired white effect the tan tones had completely disappeared. It was around this point that I hit a snag.... I ran out of paint! The model was using more paint than I expected and doing thin coats of white was taking a lot of coats. Here's the picture of the aircraft when I ran out of the white. I'm nearly there but those darker tones are still too strong for me. So a bit of a wait later for the paint order to arrive, and a few more layers later, we manage to get too.... It's really hard not to over expose the white in the picture. The tonal variation of the white is subtle but there, especially in person. Hopefully once the decals are done, and the panel line wash is done I will be able to get some nice pictures showing the whole effect together. As I said at the start, this post has been a little while coming. Partly due to the slow process of layering up in thin coats, partly because of a short break waiting for more paint, partly to lots of stuff happening behind the scenes and finally because I was just delayed getting this post up once I finished the painting. The good news is I'm already well in to the decal process and the next update should be on here quicker than this one was. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pollitt Posted February 8, 2020 Author Share Posted February 8, 2020 oh and one more picture that I missed. I think this one shows the white tones better 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Poultney Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 Has this build progressed any further? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyJammedKenny! Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 Nicely executed V bomber! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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